Mike Pompeo, the CIA director who is Trump’s kind of man
Mike Pompeo is what Donald Trump likes to call a “winner”, someone with all three qualifications the president values most – academic achievement, military experience and business success.
The 53-year-old graduated first in his class from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1986, going on to serve as a cavalry officer.
He later graduated from Harvard Law School, and went on to a successful business career with aerospace and private security companies. In 2010, he was elected as congressman from Kansas, serving on the House intelligence committee.
He also sat on the committee that investigated the 2012 attack in Benghazi, becoming a prominent critic of Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time. He has served as CIA director since the start of the Trump administration.
Four times a week, at 10am, he delivers the president’s daily intelligence briefing. Traditionally, the briefing has been a sombre affair but, according to officials, it has developed into a more unpredictable event.
Mr Trump fires questions at Mr Pompeo on a range of subjects sometimes including non-intelligence subjects like healthcare and goings-on in Congress.
Colleagues describe him as “cleareyed and hard-nosed” who speaks in the “blunt manner of a man who has no time to waste”.
Much of his work at the CIA has focused on North Korea, and he has established a Korea Mission Center at the agency’s HQ in Langley, Virginia. Last summer, he publicly suggested Kim Jong-un should be removed.
Describing his dealings with Mr Trump, he has said: “I hardly ever escape a day at the White House without the president asking me about North Korea. It’s very much at the top of his mind.”